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Hortonworks on Big Data Analytics 2016

It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since we were last all together at Big Data Analytics (BDA) London 2015. Advances in our market really do make the time fly. June 23rd is a big day in more ways than one, the real-time analytics around the EU Referendum vote will be a hot ticket, that’s for sure!

As we get ready for BDA 2016,it has got me thinking about how Hortonworks’ customer engagement has changed in the last year and how sharing some of those drivers and use cases might help as we build up to the 23rd June. If you are attending the event we invite you to stop by our booth or catch our session at 1215.

Today, our largest and most mature international customers are progressing rapidly on their journey with Apache Hadoop. Many are moving onto their third, fourth or even fifth use case and that acceleration is not limited to our mature customers as we’re also seeing those at the beginning of the journey move more quickly than they would have done 12 months ago. It’s a great benchmark of the general maturing of Hadoop in EMEA, especially, and APJ.

I feel proud of the breadth of organisations which are moving forward with connected data platforms. Whether it’s Centrica, Munich Re and Billy Mobile or Beabloo, Arkena and Open Energi – the business impact is considerable. Our community is impressive in its drive towards unlocking the rich technical and business benefits of Hadoop.

Please take a look at our mash up video which provides just a sample of what our many great European customers are saying about unlocking the future of data with Hortonworks.

And it becomes even more impressive when you consider the challenges… We’re seeing enterprises from diverse industries experiencing a data tipping point as budgets remain flat against the huge volume of incoming data. Adding to the complexity is the fact an increasing proportion of the data is unstructured and being generated outside of the datacentre, produced by increasing numbers of connected devices and sensors through the Internet of Things (IoT). As a result, organisations are working with Hortonworks for our help with modernising their infrastructure so they can focus resource on generating actionable intelligence, accelerating innovation and providing faster business results.

While there are many fantastic successes, for me the standout story over the past year has been Centrica (known for its brands including British Gas and Hive). Its data lake is supported by 250 nodes with capacity of up to 4 petabytes and already ingests around 300 gigabytes of data each day. It’s hard to over-state what Centrica’s team has achieved both in terms of impact on the customer experience it delivers and measurable benefits to the bottom line for the business. With engineers tailoring services to individual households, household consumption being tracked in real-time from over 1.3 million smart meters and cross-sell opportunities on the increase, Centrica is certainly smashing it with our Connected Data Platforms: Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) and Hortonworks Data Flow (HDF).

While I mention HDF, we’re seeing confident steps forward by customers looking to capture data in motion, recognising the value of widening the range of data collated and adopting connected data platforms across the business. In line with that, nurturing and attracting top talent is a major focus.

Along with that of our customers, Hortonworks’ expertise has grown significantly. As you’d expect, we have more skilled services and support engineers than ever, which along with our 200+ committers (double that of any other vendor!) in the Hadoop framework and increasing sector-specific experience means we are able to solve more business challenges than ever.

In tandem with that growth, our technology and services partner network has stepped up considerably in the past 12 months. Having the ability to bring in and work with trusted partners in the big data space can only help customers be more successful more quickly. I can’t walk around the London office without tripping over someone from Microsoft, EMC, HP or one of our trusted integrators.

Looking ahead, I’m excited to see more customers deploy next generation data applications in unique ways that open up new business opportunities and drive revenue. IT as a cost centre? Big data is finally going to kick that perception into touch!

We are excited for the many conversations at BDA 2016 but if you aren’t attending and enjoyed our customer video, you can catch up on the latest from Hortonworks with one of our onDemand webinars. Alternatively, you are invited to register for a new webinar taking place on the 30th June to talk through Hortonworks’ top European use cases and customer experiences.